Dive into a captivating two-hour interview with Raymond Chen, a 30-year Windows developer at Microsoft. Explore fascinating topics including the removal of 64-bit Pinball, Windows 95 development challenges, innovative compatibility testing approaches, and behind-the-scenes stories from Microsoft's history. Gain insights into debugging techniques, user interface design considerations, and the evolution of Windows operating systems. Discover anecdotes about Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and the Windows team's mascots. Learn about Chen's career journey, his problem-solving methods, and how he leverages his extensive network at Microsoft. Uncover the intricacies of Windows registry, file system improvements, and performance optimization strategies. Enjoy humorous tales of office pranks, launch event ticket forgeries, and rental car mishaps while gaining valuable knowledge about software development and computer history.
Overview
Syllabus
Intro
The "special edition" of Windows 95
The absence of 64-bit Pinball in Windows
The 64-bit Windows project initially targeted Itanium processors
During the 64-bit Windows project, resolving Pinball's collision detection problem
Pinball's removal from the 64-bit Windows
The fix for Pinball might have involved a floating point rounding issue
Testing for Pinball's collision detection problem
Raymond once received a death threat
Raymond joined Microsoft after applying for graduate school
Raymond's consistent jacket and tie attire
Raymond leverages his extensive network at Microsoft
The term "hive" in the Windows registry
Users sometimes tend to avoid answering dialogues they find confusing or unnecessary
Windows 95 faced challenges with its time zone map
Taskbar grouping
Designing intuitive vending machine interfaces
Windows team had mascots like "Bear," "Bunny," and "Piglet,"
The "USB Cart of Death" was a cart loaded with multiple USB devices used for testing USB functionality
Porting from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows
Dave Cutler
Bill Gates
Windows Power Toys
Tweaking Windows with 'Tweak UI'
Microsoft's policy shift against offering unsupported downloads
The innovative approach to Windows 95 compatibility testing
A dive into game compatibility
Race conditions in multitasking OSs
Raymond Chen fixed Windows Pinball's CPU usage issue
The time travel debugger
Color-coding files blue for compressed, green for encrypted
Usability studies observing users
Windows 286 and 386
Long file names stored in Unicode
Misaligned data in processors like RISC led to significant performance issues
Splitting a PC into two workstations
Game developers thanked Raymond Chen for getting their games to work on Windows 95
Raymond Chen had an unused VIP ticket to the Windows 95 launch but gave it away;
Colleagues on the Windows NT printing team crafted forgeries of Windows 95 launch tickets
Microsoft employees brought a coffee maker to IBM's office
Steve Ballmer left his rental car at an IBM parking lot
Dave once lost his rental car keys on the beach
Raymond's early hacking and reverse engineering skills
Raymond's transition from mathematics to software engineering
Raymond's father was a mechanical engineering professor
Raymond Chen talks about decluttering his cables
Chen maintains a six-month content buffer for his blog
Windows 95 debugging involved handling programs that allocated excessive memory
Compatibility challenges for Win95 included issues with DOS extenders
Debugging strategy involved trapping and correcting code that disabled interrupts
Taught by
Dave's Garage
